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Interview: Chelsea Lights

It’s ironic that this interview took place on one of the first warm days of summer, with daylight saving having just kicked in. Reason being, I discussed with Ben Sharples from Chelsea Lights, the dark sound of their band and how it has more emotion than before. Not to mention the difference one new member can make to a lineup…

Ben Sharples enjoys many aspects of being in a band, but his favourite part is when people give positive feedback.

‘A thing that has always (meant a lot) from day one, someone says they like what we’ve done.Even if people don’t emotionally connect, if they just come up and say they enjoyed it.We don’t want to be indifferent. The worst thing is to play to your mates and they say ‘Yeah that’s alright.’

As well as getting positive feedback, there are many good things about being in a band. One of the things Sharples loves about being in band, can be the small things, like just chilling out before the gig, beer in hand, to the bigger things, like playing live, where on stage he finds himself becoming a different person.

‘I try to be a different person to be honest. What I like about being in a band, people are always watching you. You can in effect, do whatever the hell you want. You can throw shit, you can do whatever you want and people will still watch you. It’s a relief.’

And then there is the writing of music. When it came to writing the songs for Chelsea Lights new EP, it began with a different approach: The Rhythm section.

‘We got a new drummer and he goes to WAAPA (Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts), He comes from a different background, way more technical, and he does Jazz stuff.’

‘So we started jamming the songs. We weren’t really good enough to jam (before), I don’t think I’m personally good enough, but our bass player’s really good at improvising stuff and our drummers really good at improvising stuff. They start locking into a groove, and our singer will come up with melodies and (we) work out the structure and the guitar back from there.’

With this new lineup and new found ways of writing songs, Chelsea Lights moved on quickly from their debut single released in April of this year, and were soon ready for another recording. The result of all this jamming, and inspiration is a four track self-titled EP.

Chelsea Lights have an allages launch for their EP This Friday, the 30th of November at HQ in Leederville from 7pm.With Support from Good Little Fox, The Violet Flames and Short Fuse.